Tag Archives: Charlotte Bobcats

Sign we’re at the beginning of the season: Larry Brown is upset! He hates how his bigs are playing. Giving that he’s talking about Nazr Mohammed, DeSagana Diop, and Alexis Ajinca, I don’t know why he’s surprised. Anyway, watch him continue to complain about his bunch in Charlotte for the next little while until they start consistently playing good D, at which point he will gush about them.

Milwaukee is trying to decide whether to pick up Joe Alexander’s first option year. As Shamreminded me this morning, Milwaukee picked this guy over Brook Lopez and Anthony Randolph. This is a sad story. The guy is athletic (and damn well should have been in the dunk contest last season) and, I guess, he has some potential in him. Still, how is he going to realize it in Milwaukee? They’re not a great team, but I don’t see minutes for him. He’s a 3/4, just like Skiles’s defensive darling Luc Richard Mbah A Moute. Carlos Delfino is going to get minutes at the 3, too, and Michael Redd could as well if Skiles decides to go small. At the 4 spot, I find it hard to believe he’s going to get minutes unless one or two of Hakim Warrick, Kurt Thomas, and Ersan Ilyasova get injured. I’d say they should trade Jumpin’ Joe, but he has next to no value right now.

Finally! It looks like, after a summer of bickering to my friends and to random message-board people, I’ve found people (besides Kelly Dwyer) who actually agree with me about Marco Belinelli. Michael Grange of The Globe and Mail isn’t sold on him, as he thinks using possessions on Belinelli rather than other, more effective players is a bad idea. Mark Ginocchio of Nets Are Scorching points out that just about the only statistical thing he does well is shooting. This is what I’ve been saying for a while now. He’s a pretty damn good shooter, and he actually has a well above-average feel for the game. The problem is that he can’t guard anybody, he doesn’t take care of the ball, and he lacks athleticism. He’s skilled, but he’s quite a bit overmatched in the NBA. Point guard might actually be the best position for him, but then again, imagine him trying to stick Chris Paul or Rondo. Oof.

Den Feldman of Pistons Powered has a warning for people around the league buying into the new-coach hoopla. Very nicely done, that, although I think Pistons fans have reason to be excited about Kuester. While Curry had just a few years of assistant coaching experience since his playing days ended, Kuester has been in the coaching game since 1980 and in the NBA coaching game since 1995. This man served as Cleveland’s offensive co-ordinator last year, where he turned the NBA’s 20th-best offensive team into its 4th-best. I think Dumars chose the right guy this time.

Sekou Smith is talking about Marvin Williams’s aggressiveness in Atlanta. Here’s what I said about young Marv back in August: “Marvin Williams needs to get the ball more and he needs to be more aggressive. He’s an efficient young player, but he doesn’t assert his will on the game often enough.” It seems they’re recognizing this in Atlanta, and I really hope what they’re saying now translates into how they play in the regular season. Colour me skeptical, though, ‘cause with Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, Mike Bibby, Al Horford, and now Jamal Crawford, that’s a lot of mouths to feed. If Williams is going become a bigger part of their attack, both Marvin and coach Woodson are going to have to do their parts.

Finally, if you haven’t read Adrian Wojnarowski’s excellent piece on the Warriors, you absolutely have to. This is normally where I try to add something, be it an extra piece of evidence or some criticism, but I’ve got nothin’ on this one. Just read it, he nailed it. Can’t stand seeing young talent continually wasted in Golden State.

Miami is going to start Michael Beasley at small forward. I get it; they want to start their best 5 players. Plus, if they’re going to go after Carlos Boozer or Chris Bosh this summer, they’re not going to want Beas playing the 4. Still, I’m a bit worried about this plan. As I said in my Heat preview, one of the biggest goals this season has to be Beasley’s development. He was actually very good offensively last year, but wasn’t given the minutes or touches to really show what he can do. It’s in the Heat’s long-term best interest to raise Beasley’s stock around the league. Plus, they need his scoring. If you ask me, putting him at the 3 for long stretches of time might hurt his offensive numbers. He’s more valuable offensively on the post than he is on the wing. Plus, on the defensive end, multi-talented 3s will routinely expose his weaknesses. At the end of the season, the Heat need people to be talking about what Beasley can do rather than what he can’t, and, in my eyes, he needs significant minutes at the 4 for this to be the case.

The Toronto hype machine is saying that Andrea Bargnani is much improved at everything. Most notable is that his defense is supposedly better – apparently, his anticipation has improved and so has his understanding of team defensive principles. Still, even though I defended his contract extension, I am wary about buying into this. Who exactly is he defending, with Chris Bosh sitting training camp out? Rasho Nesterovic, Patrick O’Bryant, and maybe a bit of Amir Johnson, that’s who. I’m going to wait and see what Bargnani does in a real game, because, as much as I want to believe he’s made a big leap on D, the objective side of me tells me this kind of story is meaningless.

Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer is saying that the Bobcats offered Ray Felton a long-term deal for about $7 million a season and HE TURNED IT DOWN. Whaaaa? Isn’t this team trying to shed its long-term deals? Don’t they want to develop D.J. Augustin? You don’t give $7 million a year to a guy who hasn’t shown any improvement in 4 seasons. Yeah, it seemed like Felton had a lot of potential coming out of UNC, but since arriving in the league he’s been a below average player. He doesn’t score efficiently, can’t shoot the 3, and the only reason his stats look decent is that he plays upwards of 37 minutes a game. Bill Simmons is wrong about this one. If there’s truth to this story, both sides are crazy

Brandan Wright will be out 4 to 6 months because he will require shoulder surgery. Don Nelson is upset because Wright “might be the best player in camp” and “it’s quite a loss for us”. So, Nelson’s saying he was finally going to give Wright a shot then. Really? He only let Wright play 9.9 minutes a game in his rookie season and 17.6 in his sophomore season, so why should we believe him? Both seasons, there wasn’t much consistency in the minutes department – he was jerked in and out of the line-up like all other young players tend to be in Golden State. All the while, he’s put up very good per-minute stats, making us dorks who care about such things wish that he will be given an opportunity to showcase his skills somewhere else. I’ve felt bad for this kid the last two years on the Warriors’ bench and feel really, really bad for him now that he’s hurt. Hope he returns at full strength.

Spurs blog 48 Minutes of Hell is speculating that DeJuan Blair might end up putting up the best per-minute stats of any rookie. While I’m not ready to fully jump aboard that train, I’ve got to say I’m excited about the guy. It’s unbelievable that a guy who rebounds like he does slipped so late in the draft. How well does he rebound, exactly? Well, his offensive rebounding rate last season was better than some entire teams’ rates. The guy is a monster. I’ve said it many times before but it bears repeating: The Spurs off-season has been mind-bogglingly good. Without a ton of cap room or a high draft pick, they’ve added a ton of rotation-worthy players and put themselves into title contention once again.

The Charlotte Bobcats did not have a very good or deep team headed into 2008-2009. They started off poorly, as their young group had to adjust to head coach Larry Brown. As the season went on, though, they improved, much thanks to the Brown-endorsed personnel changes that added veterans to the line-up. Boris Diaw, Raja Bell, and Vladimir Radmanovic immediately helped the team, playing significant roles. Diaw was particularly instrumental, as he handled the ball a lot more than he had in Phoenix for the last few years and relished in his larger role. This all added up to a scrappy, unselfish team that was surprisingly fun to watch as they made an inspired but unsuccessful playoff push before finishing with a franchise-best 35 wins.

It’s nice that they improved throughout the season, sure, but I have to ask Charlotte fans this: What was the point? Yep, they played hard and almost made the playoffs. They missed out on their chance to get swept by Cleveland. Now, playoff games are a lot of fun. I’ve had the good fortune to have been able to attend a few playoff games in Toronto in the Vince Carter area. The home playoff games generate some extra money for the franchise, too. This is great. Does that mean it’s worth it to max out as an 8th seed, though? I say no. I am essentially saying that it was fun to watch this group play last season, but in the big picture it doesn’t matter and wasn’t smart.

At the end of the season, I had a look at the Bobcats’ salary picture. They had Emeka Okafor locked up until 2014, Gerald Wallace and DeSagana Diop until 2013, Diaw until 2012, and Nazr Mohammed until 2011. The majority (but not all) of those guys are good players ,but these are the type of guys that will lead them to a lot of 35-45 win seasons. These guys are tied up for a long time and some of them have hard-to-trade contracts. For a fan dreaming of playoff success in Charlotte, this stinks.

Since the season has ended, the Bobcats have made two off-season moves worth mentioning. The first is the selection of Gerald Henderson with the 12th overall selection in the draft. He might be a solid pick; a lot of people think he’ll be able to help right away. He’s another in a long line of college standouts from successful programs taken by Charlotte. He’s not the type of guy that’s going to turn the team into contenders, though. That’s what happens when you have the 12th pick, especially in a weak draft.

The second move was just completed a couple of days ago. The Bobcats traded center Emeka Okafor to the New Orleans Hornets for center Tyson Chandler. I’m sorry Bobcats fans, but I just can’t defend this one. Sure, Okafor isn’t perfect. He’s got bad hands and isn’t good on the pick and roll. He’s not a natural on offense and is slightly undersized for a center. He is a good player, though – he’s 26 years old, about to enter his prime, and has now played two straight seasons injury-free. The incoming Chandler is another defensive-minded player that isn’t a huge threat on the offensive end. Before his injuries, you could probably justify this move. Sure, Okafor was still a better scorer, but Chandler was great on the defensive end of the court. Now, though, even the most optimistic Bobcats fan can’t imagine Chandler bouncing all the way back to his former self. Even though he is the same age as Okafor, he has three more years of NBA wear and tear, as he came out of high school. He has had significant injuries recently, the kind of injuries you don’t easily come back from. Back problems, turf toe? This is never, ever what fans want to see when it concerns a starting center making 12 million dollars a year, especially when that player relies so heavily on his athleticism. Last year, Chandler never played anywhere near the level NBA followers were used to seeing. He didn’t have his quickness and didn’t have his hops. He’s not the type of guy that can make up for this with his wits and veteran know-how, at least not yet. I certainly don’t expect him to duplicate his atrocious2009playoffperformances next year, but I’d be shocked if he played the full season at a high level.

Make no mistake about it, this trade was about cash. It’s never good when a non-playoff team has a high payroll. The trade took place because Chandler has a shorter contract than Okafor – the team will now get some cap relief two years from now. I kind of understand it, for the franchise, but I hate it as a basketball fan. Is this really what they had to do, trading a good player for a not-quite expiring contract? How about not going after Radmanovic, Diaw, and Bell in the first place? How about not giving Matt Carroll and Jason Richardson big money in the summer of 2007? This is a band-aid move that is the result of a few years of bad moves and it must leave the fans with a bitter taste in their mouths. This team and ownership group is so starving for financial flexibility that their only hope is hoping to get some cap relief two seasons from now.

The Bobcats are an example of a franchise stuck in 40-win hell (even though the team has yet to win 40 games in a season). If a few things go their way this year, they could make the playoffs. If not, they’ll be on the outside looking in again, likely just a bit too good to get a real difference-maker in the draft. I don’t envy this situation. If I was in charge, I’d be trying to kick-start the rebuilding process yet again, as fast as possible. This means trading anyone not named Augustin, Henderson, and Wallace. Hell, I’d listen to offers for Wallace. I think they need to get some young guys and give the fans some hope for the future, no matter how Larry Brown feels about the moves in the short-term. Some major changes are needed here, as the outlook is looking pretty bleak right now.